After Five Minutes of Meditation

by Annie Lighthart

Dear Friends,

Yesterday in our Contemplative Chapel session, we received a wonderful gift from a beloved poet who regularly joins our weekly sessions, Annie Lighthart. Annie lives with her husband and two boys in Oregon. Our new, earlier meeting time of 4:00 Central has been less convenient for Annie, but she still attends when she is able.

Before our session yesterday, Annie sent me a poem inspired by her experience of Contemplative Chapel. She said she read it to an audience recently, and received one of the most uproariously delightful receptions of her career. Several of you asked if I could post the poem, and Annie generously and happily gave me permission. Here it is:

After Five Minutes of Meditation
 
After five silent minutes all the thoughts in my mind turn 
into dogs, my head an old Volkswagen made for dogs 
to leap into, for dogs to go fast in, dogs 
smudging the windshield as more dogs materialize, 
tails and slobber flying until there are hundreds of dogs 
hanging out the windows, half of them considering a jump, half 
excitedly scratching the paint, all howling loudly 
at other thought-dogs lolling unleashed in the street.
 
I would laugh if the dogs weren’t such ruthless backseat drivers, 
every dog so relentlessly sure that this is the right turn, this
the only route, and my mind the best clunker, 
the prize junker for the fast unlicensed ride of their lives.
I would laugh if they hadn’t locked all the doors.

~ A.L.

If the desert monastics are right - that the surest path to knowing God is knowing ourselves - then Annie’s poem is a sign of one who is clearly on that path. As are all of us who laugh in recognition!

Annie is a dear friend, a fabulous poet, a wonderful mom and spouse, and a gentle, life-affirming human being. Learn more about Annie here. Her most recent book of poems is entitled Pax.